Company Profile
Air Transport International, Inc.
Company Overview
ATI is a US passenger and cargo airline headquartered in Wilmington, Ohio. ATI holds an FAA Part 121 Air Carrier Certificate and numerous charter and scheduled passenger and cargo certificates issued by the US DOT for worldwide and domestic operations. ATI also holds Air Operator Certificates issued by many foreign countries, reflecting ATI’s global operational presence. ATI is a subsidiary of Air Transport Services Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATSG), a leading provider of passenger and cargo transportation and related services to air carriers and other enterprises that outsource their airlift requirements.
Company History
The airline was founded in 1978 as US Airways. In January 1980 the airline (renamed Interstate Airlines) became an FAR Part 121 certificated all-cargo airline flying CONVAIR 580s. Its fleet quickly expanded to include Lockheed L-188 Electra, Boeing 727, and McDonnell-Douglas DC8 aircraft. The airline flew freight domestically for Purolator, Emery, and ad hoc charters. In 1984 the airline began flying internationally. It moved its headquarters from Michigan to Arkansas. In 1988 the airline adopted its current name.
Through the 1990s and 2000s ATI hauled freight for the Military Airlift Command (Air Mobility Command), UPS, Emery Air Freight, Burlington Air Express, DHL, and Zantop International Airlines. The airline had over 500 employees and operated 32 DC8s. As a long-term member of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF), ATI was among the airlines activated in 1990 to support Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield and received several commendations for its performance.
In October 1994, ICX International Cargo Express was merged with ATI. The airline was purchased by BAX Global, an operating unit of the Brink’s Company, in February 1998.
In 2006, ATI was sold to Cargo Holdings International, Inc. (CHI), which was itself acquired by ABX Holdings, Inc. the following year. In 2008, parent company ABX Holdings was renamed Air Transport Services Group, Inc. (ATSG). ATI added its first Boeing 767 in 2008.
In March 2013, Capital Cargo International Airlines was merged with ATI. During the same year, ATI replaced its DC8 Combi aircraft with more modern Boeing 757 Combi aircraft. Today, the airline’s fleet consists exclusively of Boeing 767 and 757 aircraft, allowing all of its flight crews to share a common type rating. The company’s principal customers include the US military, DHL, and Amazon Fulfillment Services, Inc.
The success of ATI is due to every employee embracing the culture of safety, compliance and operational excellence and the professionalism exhibited by the entire workforce. As a team, we have successfully met the difficult challenges demanded of all of us, especially over the last 3 years. From the merger of combining 2 airlines into a very complex operational passenger and cargo operation with a worldwide route system, to consistently providing the flexibility to our customers to meet their ever changing and demanding requirements, to moving headquarters and operations across the country, to the significant achievement of having a B757/767 common type rating for flight crews, to B757 ETOPS authority for the North/South Atlantic, the South/Central Pacific and Indian Ocean and B757 Cat III lower landing minimums, we have accomplished all of these challenges in a very compressed time frame beyond all expectations. And we did all of this with safety, compliance and operational excellence as a priority. We will continue to achieve success together through the hard work, diligence, and teamwork that has become ATI’s culture.
Notable Clients
Amazon, AMC, and DHL